A Grammar and Lexicon of Yintyingka

Verstraete, Jean‐Christophe; Rigsby, Bruce

doi:10.1515/9781614519003

Cited by 16 publications

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“…Table 3 lists all possible stress patterns for bisyllabic and trisyllabic roots in Umpithamu, which as mentioned earlier together make up over 90 per cent of the lexicon. Stress is morphologically insensitive (unlike in Umpithamu's closest relative Yintyingka, see Verstraete & Rigsby 2015), so the patterns below are not influenced by suffixation, except in occasional instances of lexicalisation of suffixed forms. The relevant surface factors governing these stress patterns are the presence of an onset, the length of the first vowel, and the size of the root.…”

Section: Basicsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…There are definitely other languages with partial initial loss in the region (see Alpher 1976, who coined the term 'sporadic initial dropping' for them), but none have a sufficiently detailed analysis of their stress system to compare with Umpithamu. The best candidate is probably Yintyingka (Verstraete & Rigsby 2015), which has a relatively small percentage of vowel-initial roots (13%, versus 40% in Umpithamu), which seem to originate in borrowing rather than any internal phonetic process (as argued in Verstraete forthcoming). Interestingly, however, what can be reconstructed of the stress system looks like that of Umpithamu, with an apparent righthand generalisation (see patterns in Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, though the right-hand analysis is not spelt out there).…”

Section: Umpithamu Stress Shift In a Broader Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stress Change and Initial Consonant Loss in Umpithamu: Cause or Consequence?*

Verstraete

2021

Trans of the Philol Soc

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This study aims to reconstruct a change in the system of word stress in Umpithamu, a language of Cape York Peninsula, in northeastern Australia. The change involves a shift in parsing direction, from a left-aligned system as found in most Pama-Nyungan languages, to a system anchored at the right edge. The process of change is reconstructed using evidence from changes in root structure and root size, in combination with specifics of the synchronic system of word stress. The broader context for the analysis is a well-known hypothesis about stress shift as a cause of initial consonant loss, a typologically rare phenomenon attested in areal patterns in Australia, including Umpithamu and its neighbours. The reconstruction of stress change in Umpithamu shows that the picture is more complex, with the major stress shift as a consequence rather than a cause of initial loss. Umpithamu shows partial rather than complete initial loss, and thus reveals the complexities of the actual processes rather than their end point. Comparison with languages at the end point of the processes shows how their stress systems can be derived from an Umpithamu-type system simply by assuming further changes in root structure attested as following initial consonant loss. INTRODUCTIONThis study aims to reconstruct a change in the system of word stress in Umpithamu, a Middle Paman (< Paman < Pama-Nyungan) language of Cape York Peninsula, in northeastern Australia. The change involves a shift in parsing direction, from a left-aligned system as found *I am grateful to the late Florrie Bassani for teaching me about Umpithamu, and to the younger Lamalama people for continuing support and encouragement. Earlier versions of this study were presented at the Philological Society (London) and Vielfaltslinguistik III (Cologne), and in seminars in Canberra and Leuven. I thank

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Section: Basicsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Umpithamu Stress Shift In a Broader Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress Change and Initial Consonant Loss in Umpithamu: Cause or Consequence?*

Verstraete

2021

Trans of the Philol Soc

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“…Indeed, there are plenty of examples when the latter count fewer “languages” than the people themselves, for example, Di Carlo (2016) and Di Carlo et al (2019) with seven to eight versus 13 for Lower Fungom, Lüpke (2018) with 15 versus ca. 30 for Casamance in Senegal, Verstraete and Rigsby (2015, p. 10, p. 14) with one versus four in Australia or Khanina (2021) with five versus six in Siberia.…”

Section: Ideologies Of Small-scale Multilingualismmentioning

confidence: 98%

“….]) and not owned” (Verstraete & Rigsby, 2015, p. 11). In the Piraparaná region of Upper Rio Negro, people “speak” their patrilect but only “imitate” other languages (Gomez-Imbert, 1991, p. 543).…”

Section: Ideologies Of Small-scale Multilingualismmentioning

confidence: 99%

A typology of small-scale multilingualism

Pakendorf

Dobrushina

Khanina

2021

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Aims: The paper aims at providing an exhaustive overview of studies of small-scale multilingualism, a type of language ecology typical of—but not exclusive to—indigenous communities with small numbers of speakers. We identify the similarities and differences among situations of such multilingualism, which lay the foundations for a future typology of this kind of language ecology. Approach and data: We outline the importance of language ideologies for multilingualism in small-scale societies, highlight the sources of this type of language ecology, with a special focus on the impact of marriage patterns, discuss to what extent situations of small-scale multilingualism are truly egalitarian and symmetric, and survey the different methods used in the study of this domain. In order to do so, we survey studies devoted to multilingualism in indigenous communities of all continents: the New World (especially South America), Australia, Melanesia, Africa, Europe and Asia. Conclusions: The multilingual ecologies of the pre- and postcolonial world are extremely diverse, with many factors playing a role in their constitution. They are also highly endangered, and thus their study is of the utmost urgency. Originality: The domain of small-scale multilingualism is still novel for sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. Although the researchers working with indigenous groups have been describing the peculiarities of multilingual repertoires, language acquisition and language attitudes in various parts of the world, the domain lacks the kind of comparison and generalizations that we provide here. Significance: The increased interest in small-scale multilingualism has been boosted by the realization of its significance for reconstructing the social conditions that favoured linguistic diversity in the precolonial world. Furthermore, insights into this type of multilingualism—which differs considerably from the better-studied situations of bi- and multilingualism in urban contexts and large nation states—are of prime importance for a better understanding of the human language faculty.

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“…1111I have long been struck by the use of the term ‘(bush) murri ’ to refer to unfamiliar Aboriginal people, this usage implicitly suggesting someone likely to be engaged in sorcery (cf. Verstraete & Rigsby, : 344 on wapa , a person engaged in sorcery, glossed by Umpila‐speakers as ‘bush man, wild man’). Murri is a loan word from more southerly Aboriginal languages used across Queensland, meaning simply ‘Aboriginal person’.…”

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confidence: 99%

Sorcery and the dividual in Australia

Smith

2016

J R Anthropol Inst

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In this article I present an analysis of Australian Aboriginal sorcery, applying concepts from the New Melanesian Ethnography. My starting‐point is Keen's approach to magic among the Yolngu, which engages Strathern's concept of the dividual, but which focuses on the extension of partible aspects of the person in space and time. Building on Keen's analysis, I draw on ethnographic material from Cape York Peninsula to argue that Aboriginal sorcery might be understood not only as the extension of partible aspects of the person, but also in terms of the interplay between the internal divisions and external connections of dividual personhood, linking that interplay to the various invasive techniques understood to be employed by sorcerers. On that basis, I argue that, in the central Peninsula, sorcery beliefs are best understood as forms of ‘indigenous analysis’ (Strathern) or ‘naïve critique’ (Kapferer) that simultaneously articulate and obscure the anxieties that inhere in postcolonial Aboriginal sociality.

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A Grammar and Lexicon of Yintyingka

Cited by 16 publications

References 0 publications

Stress Change and Initial Consonant Loss in Umpithamu: Cause or Consequence?*

Stress Change and Initial Consonant Loss in Umpithamu: Cause or Consequence?*

A typology of small-scale multilingualism

Sorcery and the dividual in Australia

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